Preoperative determination of tumor thickness in oral squamous cell carcinoma by computed tomography

Abstract

Introduction. Evaluation of the prognostic factors and the survival rate in oral squamous cell carcinoma is extremely important, because patients in the same tumor-node-metastasis stage may have a different survival rate. Numerous studies have been conducted on various clinical and pathological prognostic factors in order to develop a prognostic model for the survival rate of patients with oral cancer. Material and Methods. The study was designed as a prospective study including 65 consecutive patients (n = 65) of both sexes who underwent surgical treatment of oral cancer. The diagnosis of oral cancer was based on the medical history, physical examination, and biopsy. The clinical tumor-node-metastasis staging was determined based on clinical examination. The radiological tumor-node-metastasis staging was done by computed tomography of the head, neck, and chest. The tumor thickness was determined by computed tomography and histopathological analysis of surgical specimens. Results. The histopathological analysis showed a mean tumor thickness of 13.446 mm, while the mean computed tomography tumor thickness was 15.2707 mm. The correlation between computed tomography tumor thickness and histopathological tumor thickness was moderately significant (Spearman?s rho = .581, p = 0.000). Conclusion. This study supports the use of computed tomography in the determination of tumor thickness in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. We want to emphasize the importance of preoperative, detailed imaging evaluation of patients in order to avoid multiple surgical procedures, significant morbidity, and unnecessary costs.